Honda recalled 2.03 million vehicles worldwide, including 1.02 million in North America, 153,943 in Europe and 668,582 in Japan. The vehicles were manufactured between April 2000 and October 2002. In North America, they cover the Civic, CR-V, Odyssey and Element. In Europe, affected models are the Civic, Stream, Fit/Jazz and CR-V.

Mazda called back 159,807 vehicles worldwide, including 14,794 in North America, 90,259 in Europe and 11,832. That recall covers the RX-8 and first-generation Mazda6.

Nissan's recall affects 755,000 units worldwide. The total includes 228,000 vehicles in North America, including the Infiniti FX35, Pathfinder and Cube, and 128,000 nameplates in Japan, including the X-Trail and Teanna. Nissan did not provide a European breakout.

The June 23 triple action pushes to nearly 10 million the number of vehicles recalled worldwide over the past five years to fix Takata airbags.

Two deaths have been linked to faulty airbags in Hondas, both of which occurred in the United States in 2009, and the company said it knows of 41 cases of ruptured airbags.

Spokespeople for Nissan and Mazda said they have received no reports of injuries.

The three companies said they will replace the defective parts.

“We apologize for the trouble caused to our clients,” said Kikko Takai, a Takata spokeswoman. “We take it seriously and will strengthen our quality control to prevent a repeat of the issue.”

Faulty inflators

The latest recalls target possibly defective airbag inflators that were not included in a worldwide April 2013 recall by Honda, Mazda, Nissan and Toyota Motor Corp.

Takata informed the companies earlier this month that faulty inflators may have slipped through the cracks and been delivered to manufacturers because of faulty record-keeping.

The lapses occurred at Takata plants in North America, a Honda spokeswoman said. The potentially defective parts were shipped to assembly plants worldwide.

The Honda, Mazda and Nissan callbacks come nearly two weeks after Toyota Motor Corp. issued a similar action to fix Takata airbags installed in its vehicles.

Tokyo-based Takata, the world's No. 2 auto safety equipment maker, said at the time that more recalls could come to fix glitches dating back to the early 2000s.

The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said then it was also investigating potentially defective inflators in vehicles produced by Nissan, Mazda and Chrysler.

Chrysler Group said it will notify some vehicle owners in four tropical regions that it will honor NHTSA's request to replace air bag inflators in 2006 Dodge Chargers.

Chrysler's action right now only covers 2006 Dodge Chargers registered in Florida, Hawaii, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The automaker said it was pre-empting its own established protocols for dealing with potential defects to deal with the inflators “out of an abundance of caution.” The company said that it had been notified of a single injury related to the issue.

Storage, faulty recording issues

The problems have been twofold: Problems with moisture and problems with record-keeping. Initially, moisture due to improper storage at the factory was believed to degrade the inflators causing them to explode, spraying pieces of metal into the cabin.

Meanwhile, faulty recording keeping by Takata has forced automakers to widen the 2013 recalls to cover vehicles that might have inadvertently received faulty propellant.

On June 11, Toyota called back 1.62 million vehicles outside Japan that previously had been recalled and 650,000 more in Japan not previously targeted.

That action brought the total number of Takata airbag recalls to 7 million vehicles worldwide, Reuters reported. The Honda, Nissan and Mazda recalls add to that total.

From 2000 to 2002, Takata plants in Washington and Mexico used some propellant that had been exposed to moisture. Takata fixed the problem at the factory, but faulty record-keeping hampered it from identifying those batches.

So the automakers issued huge recalls to track down all defective airbags.

In a statement issued June 20, Takata CEO Shigehisa Takada confirmed that the inflators may have been damaged by moisture but also cited humid weather as a possible cause.

“We currently believe the high levels of absolute humidity in those states [Florida, Puerto Rico] are important factors; and as a result, our engineers are analyzing the impact that humidity may have on the potential for an inflator malfunction,” he said.